Arthur Machen

[Robert Adam Gilmour]

VICTORIAN VOICES - SEVEN WRITERS FROM THE DARK - greydogtales

I knew Blackwood had been on television and radio plenty of times but didn't know about this Machen clip from the radio.

I was discussing Machen earlier on Skype with a friend and which movies felt Machen-esque to us. We both named Picnic at Hanging Rock and Valerie and Her Week of Wonders immediately, but my friend was startled by my choice of M. Night Shyamalan's superhero movie Unbreakable, which led to a two hour discussion on the subject.

I think its central themes are pure Machen in that it is a film about how our mediocre times have drenched humanity in so much materialism that they fail to recognise the awe and wonder of the numinous reality around them hinted at in folklore and legend. It's a superhero movie, but I feel it's more Machen than the more mentioned Pan's Labyrinth. It's the sort of story Machen may have appreciated and fits the criteria set out in Hieroglyphics for what fiction should aspire to achieve in its exploration of the great mysteries. It's The Secret Glory told as a Superman story.

[Ibrahim]

Quote Originally Posted by James

I was discussing Machen earlier on Skype with a friend and which movies felt Machen-esque to us. We both named Valerie and Her Week of Wonders and Picnic at Hanging Rock immediately, but my friend was startled by my choice of M. Night Shyamalan's superhero movie Unbreakable, which led to a two hour discussion on the subject. I think its central themes are pure Machen in that it is a film about how our mediocre times have drenched humanity in so much materialism that they fail to recognise the awe and wonder of the numinous reality around them hinted at in folklore and legend. It's a superhero movie, but I feel it's more Machen than the more mentioned Pan's Labyrinth. It's the sort of story Machen may have appreciated and fits the criteria set out in Hieroglyphics for what fiction should aspire to achieve in its exploration of the great mysteries. It's The Secret Glory told as a Superman story.

Never thought to see Unbreakable in that light- what a nice conceit. There were some Machenesque touches to, what's it called, The Lady in the Water? but i thought the editing of that film was an absolute mess.

Machenesque films- there's a fun parlour game. There's many sides to it i guess... a thing like Rus in Urbe is echoed by the poetics of Jarman's monochrome landscape films, perhaps, while i feel the reporting tone/journalistic angle plus sexual perversion plus landscape of Great God Pan is present in the three Red Riding films.
There must be more. Suggestions, people?

I'm currently reading The Hill of Dreams. It's a pretty underrated novel... I see it as a Victorian Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

[Arthur Staaz]

Quote Originally Posted by Nirvana In Karma

I'm currently reading The Hill of Dreams. It's a pretty underrated novel... I see it as a Victorian Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

Me too! I think I like it more than "The White People" and "The Great God Pan". Of course, different literary genres, but still I've rarely seen anyone evoke the wonder of nature better.

Is Arthur Machen's 1890s Notebook ever liable to be reprinted?

Also makes me a sad panda that the big Arthur Machen Facebook group still haven't accepted my request to join after almost four years. How mysterious. I'm too obscure (and lovely) to be personally rejected. It would be nice for my relationship with Machen's fiction to be less solitary, but alas...

[Druidic]

Also makes me a sad panda that the big Arthur Machen Facebook group still haven't accepted my request to join after almost four years. How mysterious. I'm too obscure (and lovely) to be personally rejected. It would be nice for my relationship with Machen's fiction to be less solitary, but alas...
--James


Your enthusiasm for all things Machen is infectious and I can't conceive of any Machen group turning you down. You could start a blog that centers largely on Machen. You're knowledgeable enough; and sooner or later, some of those folk will have to take notice.

How can anybody not be in awe of Machen – a man whose entire artistic consciousness was to stay true to himself and channel forces he felt must be channelled?

His golden period of the 1890s ranks him among the greats of the dark folk/supernatural fiction genre, and even after the advent of WW1, when most of his best fiction was behind him, he then blessed the world with three exquisite volumes of autobiographies. So much more to him than the proto-Lovecraft he is often dismissed as. The White People and The Hill of Dreams are exultant triumphs of loneliness.

John Gawsworth's The Life of Arthur Machen has been reprinted by Tartarus. Got mine ordered. Now I only need Machen's 1890s Notebook to essentially complete my collection, outside of uncollected minor essays.

I think I enjoy reading about Machen's life significantly more than his fiction after the start of WW1. Fascinating man.

[tartarusrussell]

Quote Originally Posted by James

Is Arthur Machen's 1890s Notebook ever liable to be reprinted? Also makes me a sad panda that the big Arthur Machen Facebook group still haven't accepted my request to join after almost four years. How mysterious. I'm too obscure (and lovely) to be personally rejected. It would be nice for my relationship with Machen's fiction to be less solitary, but alas...

It would be good to reprint the 1890s Notebook, but not necessarily immediately--most of the potential audience for it has a copy (sorry, I'm not trying to add to your pain!)
Do prompt the Machen facebook group again -- I can't think that ignoring you was anything other than an oversight or an admin error.